Due to the massive wildfires still burning in Northern California and causing poor air quality, many high school playoff football games originally scheduled for Friday night were postponed until Monday.

Five people have been found dead in their burned-out vehicles due to the fire near the town of Paradise that as of Friday afternoon had grown to nearly 110 square miles (280 square kilometers) and was burning completely out of control.

Naturally, the North Coast Section decided that football would not be played on Friday night for those affected by the conditions. The games that were postponed included St. Patrick-St. Vincent High’s game at Moreau Catholic, American Canyon High’s game at Rancho Cotate and Benicia High’s game at Bishop O’Dowd. For the time being, all three playoff game have been moved to Monday night with kickoff times scheduled for 7 p.m.

Bri Niemi, the NCS Associate Commissioner, sent out a memo to school principals and athletic directors on Friday morning.

“Due to the recent fires in Northern California, which subsequently has affected the air quality for much of the North Coast Section, NCS staff must make critical decisions based on existing air quality data to ensure the safety of our student-athletes, while reducing confusion and potential chaos in cancelling games a second time, should the air quality not improve by the next day,” Niemi wrote. “Assuming all games can finish by Mon., Nov. 12, games for the next round will tentatively be played on Sat., Nov. 17. Future games may be left as TBD on the brackets until more information is known. We will be handling all of our playoff contests on a sport-by-sport basis.”

An AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells someone how clean or polluted the air might be. St. Pat’s head coach Lane Hawkins said if the index number is above 150, then the air quality is too poor. St. Pat’s plays in the Division IV bracket.

“I thought they might postpone the games, yeah. Yesterday the air quality was OK and we practiced,” Hawkins said. “But later (Thursday night) the air quality went all the way to 170. I talked with the athletic director of Moreau Catholic (Hayward) about it and soon after we got the memo of the game being moved to Monday. I don’t know if this helps us or hurts us. We will practice a little today and try to practice tomorrow because we want to stay prepared.”

American Canyon, which plays in Division II, had its game moved to Monday in Rohnert Park. Like Hawkins, Wolves head coach John Montante said the team wants to stay prepared.

“We will go through some run-throughs and some kind of drills inside and just work out by weightlifting in the gym, anything to get the heart rate up in some way,” Montante said. “The game is not until Monday, so we can’t let them sit around and be stagnant. In a way though I think the kids are excited and they’re going to have fun. They’re going to find out what it’s like to play on Monday Night Football.”

Benicia will play Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland in the Division II bracket on Monday in Oakland and Panthers head coach Craig Holden said he wasn’t surprised about the changing of the game.

“Well, when I woke to ash coming down from the sky, yeah I thought it was possible,” Holden said, with a laugh. “Then I got the email from NCS around 9 in the morning.”

Although Holden went through a similar situation last year with the Napa fires, the Panthers’ coach said it’s a little different this time.

“Last year we prepared all week for Bethel, and that game was cancelled and we never played them,” Holden said. “Last year was just the regular season and this year it’s the second round of the playoffs, so I guarantee that this time we will play the game. Whether it’s this Monday or on Friday (Nov. 16), they will play this game eventually.”

One event that is expected to continue as planned on Saturday is CC Sabathia’s PitCCh In Foundation Baseball ProCamp at Vallejo High. The camp, for kids aged 5 to 13, will take place at Corbus Field and will feature New York Yankees’ starting pitcher and Vallejo native, CC Sabathia.

“The smoke hasn’t affected us that much,” Vallejo High athletic director Josh Ramos said. “I mean, it’s been a little smoky (Friday) afternoon, but in the morning it was blue and clear (the skies). We’re hoping for the same thing on Saturday morning.”

Been working at the Times-Herald full time since early 2011, was a stringer from 2001-2004 while in college at San Francisco State where I studied Journalism. Have worked as a copy editor and sportswriter since 2011. Fan of Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Kings and Raiders.